Two of the women were killed in an Israeli strike on the town of Nabatieh, the director of the town's hospital, Dr Hassan Wazni, and two security sources told Reuters.

Dr Wazni added that the bodies of the women arrived at the hospital so badly damaged in the strike that they were hard to identify.

He said seven others were wounded.

It came after security sources told the Reuters news agency that one woman and two children had died during Israeli strikes on a village.

Eleven people were wounded across southern areas and the level of damage was "vast", the sources said.

Lebanon's powerful armed group Hezbollah said a strike on a separate town killed one of its fighters.

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Media reports in Lebanon said buildings were on fire after the attacks by Israel.

A spokesperson for the Israeli government said the strikes were launched after a woman died and eight other people were injured in a rocket attack fired from Lebanon on the Safed area in northern Israel, in which a military base was also hit.

Hezbollah is thought to be behind the initial rocket attack, but has not claimed responsibility.

The armed group did not announce any operations on Wednesday - but the head of its executive council warned the Israeli attacks "cannot pass without a response".

In a statement, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said: "A short while ago, IDF fighter jets struck a series of Hezbollah terror targets in the areas of Jabal el Braij, Houneh, Dunin, Aadchit and Souaneh.

"Among the targets struck were military compounds, operational control rooms, and terror infrastructure used by Hezbollah terrorists.

"Several targets belonged to the Redwan Forces."

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Cross-border shelling has already killed more than 200 people in Lebanon, including more than 170 Hezbollah fighters, as well as around a dozen Israeli troops and some Israeli civilians.

Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been exchanging fire for more than four months.

It came after the armed group launched rockets across the disputed frontier in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, which launched a deadly assault on Israel last October.

The exchange in fire has also displaced tens of thousands of people in the border areas of each country.